In
the summer of 2013 Tees Archaeology, along with the Friends of North
Cemetery, Hartlepool and a group of volunteers, carried out a trial
excavation on the former site of the North Cemetery lodge and the
two chapels.

As
part of the project the volunteers and Friends also carried out
detailed recording on some of the surviving memorials within the
cemetery.

The
cemetery, originally called the West Hartlepool Cemetery, was opened
in 1856 to serve the expanding port and town of West Hartlepool
.

It
was sited on the huge mound of spoil which had been excavated from
the 1840s onwards to create the new docks.

The
buildings themselves were built of magnesium limestone blocks, which
were probably also quarried from the docks.

The
cemetery was served by a full time Superintendent who lived in the
lodge with his family. The two chapels were required for separate
Church of England and Nonconformist use, though the excavation found
that they were very similar in appearance, with identical window
glass being used for both. The cemetery was also divided into separate
consecrated, unconsecrated and Roman Catholic areas for burials.
The cemetery expanded rapidly to the east and north throughout the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, as the town grew around it and eventually
enclosed it, and continued in regular use until the 1950s.

North
Cemetery Report

If
you would like to know more about the project, please download the
report and figures:-